A snake a friend of mine has been watching has been going through the same thing. Last time they checked the current price was 2x the original price
2 Likes
I will admit… Today I considered playing the price change game and doubling my price.
Though my thoughts was to do the ‘free shipping’/shipping included in cost thing since getting chat requests about a 75$ listing with the ad still listing shipping 50-100$ and then saying, “shipping is 85$” and getting ghosted. Hahah.
This is most likely because they’re new to the site or buying long distance and not familiar with shipping.
Just some food for thought.
Still very different from taking a 75$ animal, bumping the price to 150$ and then popping it ‘on sale! 75$’
5 Likes
In my friend’s case, the animal’s price has ranged from $1.2k to $2.4k
2 Likes
The best thing we can do is vote with our wallets. There is no animal that we have to have
3 Likes
@phantom_hatchery Yeah that’s a yikes 
@bradburyesqu true. But having people raise a price just to list the original price as the ‘sale’ for attention is scummy and people should be aware of that. Without the proposed visuals, how would you know you didn’t fall for that?
5 Likes
Might be a bit late with this suggestion, but here, under consumer rights law, for something to be listed on sale with with the previous price listed, it must have been at the previous, higher, price, for 28 consecutive days within the previous 90 days. Might be worth looking into something like this?
2 Likes
Giving this post a bump to see how the feasibility of a price history for each listing would be. I’ve been watching individuals still do this.
For instance saw a snake listed on the “deals ending soon” section, said original price was $350, and sale price was $130. Was just like huh, that’s a big discount. As soon as the sale ended, price went to $260.
I don’t think there’s any real way to win by preventing price changes, I’d just love the transparency to see what’s going on.
6 Likes
I wholeheartedly agree with this. I don’t see a way of preventing someone from price manipulating, but I could at least make an informed decision with a price history.
7 Likes
So…. Wanted to circle back to this. See if we had any insight to whether this would happen?
Also, the reason it’s been brought up is that there is at least one seller (large ball Python breeder) who, once an animal sells, simply removes the price and lists it as “inquire for price”…… why? Why would someone want to hide prices so you can’t research prices? It seems shady. It’s EVERY listing that they have. Once it’s sold, price is changed to inquire.
I’d like more transparency. I’d like to see auction prices, because in my mind that reflects the current market price but I know that’s still a new thing so we aren’t sharing those just yet.
Rant over. Transparency is good, and I’d like to know if it’s something we’ll possibly get.
3 Likes
Ewwww… That kind of manipulation is just weird.
Like, it’s weird enough seeing a breeder list something as ‘inquire’ here but then get handed a spreadsheet image listing the going prices for multiple animals. Why not just list?
But changing it after the sale just feels wrong. Also… Wouldn’t that cause issue of there was a dispute after the sale? Or is there a record of ad changes kept on MM’s side?
This would be nice. Obviously, if reserve wasn’t met it doesn’t matter… But to know what a particular gene is being listed at and what other people are willing to purchase for in auctions is handy.
I try not to undercut when I list animals for sale here. I usually try and list at what others are listed at… But when animals aren’t moving, that auction sale in the records is handy.
2 Likes